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This week's Answer:
Finishing
Not Finishing Actually,
that is an excellent question and my answer may astound
you. Or at maybe somewhat surprise you. Or at least
be one that you don't expect. Or maybe you expect it, but
not exactly the way you expected. Anyway,
to my answer: Every time. Or almost every time. Or
usually. Once in a while. What
I'm saying is that you never know what you're going to be
feeling or thinking about your current script and often
what you're thinking or feeling or even believing is
often not the truth. Here's
an example. I'm currently working on a script for a
client, doing a major rewrite and it's going quite well.
But for the last few days, I was thinking that my writing
was a catastrophe and that I would never finish it and
started talking myself into believing that I didn't want
to work on it anymore and that it wouldn't turn out
well. I
ask you, members of the jury, where is the evidence that
supports those self-negating statements? I
had forgotten that I've written many screenplays, finished
them all, have sold scripts, optioned scripts, developed
and analyzed and improved many more. I absolutely know how
to write a comedy (the script is a comedy). There's
your evidence, jury. Your honor, I rest my case! But
in this "case," the evidence wasn't enough on my
own. I called a writing partner, read a few scenes to him,
listened to his positive reactions as I did, and even
during the time I was reading it, I realized, "Hey, I
can write!" Of
course, you can, Dummy. I
charge you for contempt of court. Pay the bailiff on your
way out. See?
It never pays to isolate yourself from your writing
buddies or to doubt yourself.
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